ELIZABETH BATHORY STORY - TRUTH OR MYTH?
April 4, 2006
Countess Elizabeth Bathory (Erzsébet Báthory in Hungarian) killed 612 women, and in her diary, she documented their deaths. She became known as "Hungary's national monster," and was (along with Vlad Dracula) the model for Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Elizabeth was arrested by Count Thurzo and his compatriots, an arrest that was political in nature. The aging Countess, quite old for those times of ill health and early death had become an embarrassment, particularly since she had begun to kill members of the royalty, and despite (and perhaps because of) her high placement in the Báthory family as cousin to the Polish king and holder of vast amounts of royal land.

Two trials brought by Thurzo were held in 1611, one in Hungarian and one in Latin. A later tribunal with more than 200 witnesses was convened by King Matthias II. Elizabeth and her servants were found guilty and had their punishments set by the Bicse judge. Helena Jo and Dorattya Szentes were tortured and burned at the stake in 1611. Janos Ujvary was beheaded. Katalin Beneczky was spared death, and her fate is unknown.
Elizabeth herself was walled into her torture chamber, where she died after three years of imprisonment, in 1614.
All records of Elizabeth were sealed for more than a century, and her name was forbidden to be spoken in Hungarian society. Read more

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MOVIE REVIEW - STAY ALIVE: THRILLING HORROR RIDE
April 2, 2006
"Stay Alive" is a spontaneous horror film that keeps the audience always hoping for the best for each of the characters. This cast of people has a unique sense of friendship and helps create the thematic circumstances in which they all must stick together to survive.



Even though many believe horror movies are ridiculous and only meant to scare you into not wanting to turn off the lights at night, this movie was not that bad. "Stay Alive" will keep you interested and submerged in the story. Read more
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MASHA KALININA FAN CLUB IS OPEN ON YAHOO MOVIES!
March 30, 2006
Please join my Fan Club to get the latest news and receive the latest information on my newest projects.
I will update my Fan Club with new pictures, articles and news daily.
So, what are you waiting for? Join now!

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STAY ALIVE MOVIE REVIEW FROM LACITYBEAT.COM
March 30, 2006
Yes, it’s The Ring with a computer game, down to the evil female spirit contained within, who in this case is the infamous Hungarian Countess Bathory (Masha Kalinina), inexplicably relocated to New Orleans for this storyline. The game within the film looks like a lot of fun – certainly more fun than the copycat killings.

You’ll probably wish you were at home playing something similar instead. If any of these characters were halfway decent gamers (or even hackers), their problems would be solved, but none of these numbskulls even tries to simply beat the game.
Note to parents: For a PG-13 movie, Stay Alive contains semi-shown kinky sex, lots of drug references, brief realistic gore, and lots of digital gore.
Note to adolescents: It still isn’t as much fun as playing an actual game.
Read Movie Synopsis and Info
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BOX OFFICE REPORT
March 28, 2006
Disney's Hollywood Pictures took third place with the horror, suspense thriller Stay Alive. Starring Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong, Frankie Muniz, Sophia Bush, Adam Goldberg and Masha Kalinina, the movie beat expectations with a debut of $11.2 million from 2,009 theaters, for an average of $5,578 per theater.

GAME OVER! - "STAY ALIVE" - IN THEATERS MARCH 24TH, 2006 March 24, 2006

By Kirk Honeycutt
The legend of Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary (Masha Kalinina) , the 17th century "Blood Countess," has it that she slew 650 young girls to bathe in their blood in a misguided rejuvenation program. Then, as her family walled her up inside her castle to prevent further misadventures, she vowed to return to life. And return she has -- in movies.

She starred in the 1971 French horror film, "Les Levres rouges" (Daughters of Darkness), portrayed by the lovely Delphine Seyrig, then re-appeared in August in the overwrought lesbian-vampire movie "Eternal." Her latest reincarnation in "Stay Alive" well befits modern sensibilities because she is the diaphanous villain in a video game. In the movie, gamers who accept the challenge of the underground game find themselves dying, one by one, each killed in the exact manner as their characters in the game.

"Stay Alive" is a horror-thriller for the young crowd, assuming a movie can lure them away from PlayStations. While the movie should encounter a solid reception in home video, "Stay Alive" is imaginative enough at the conceptual level to have achieved with some promotion perhaps average or even above-average theatrical grosses.

The characters are rote creations, however, your typical youths so familiar to scare movies. Yet the mix of 3-D game action with the atmospheric reality of New Orleans and Louisiana locations that startlingly replicate the game's physical design is a neat trick. The deaths themselves are routine by horror-film standards, while the gore never ventures beyond PG-13 territory.

The protagonist is Hutch (Jon Foster), whose buddy (Milo Ventimiglia) dies after beta testing a video game titled "Stay Alive." So naturally, Hutch and his friends have to play it. These include Abigail (Samaire Armstrong), a photographer who just happens to turn up at the buddy's funeral; tech guru Swink (Frankie Muniz); goth girl October (Sophia Bush); her hard-core gaming brother, Phineus (Jimmi Simpson); and via the Internet, Hutch's game-obsessed boss, Miller (Adam Goldberg).

So it's in-the-dungeon-with-14-inch-knives until the movie reduces its cast to three and then two characters. They have no choice, you see, because once "Stay Alive" begins, the game plays by itself.

Debuting director William Brent Bell, who wrote the script with producer Matthew Peterman, keeps the pace brisk and the pot bubbling. Cinematographer Alejandro Martinez, designer Bruton Jones and visual effects supervisor Kent Seki create just the right ambiance with 3-D action that looks like the real thing and real locations that look weirdly like 3-D action.

You do wonder, though, where Elizabeth Bathory will next appear.
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RED CARPET AT THE "CRASH" LOS ANGELES PREMIERE
April 26, 2005
- Masha was a guest at the "Crush" Los Angeles premiere (starring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle). Photo: Red Carpet with Martin Norseman.





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MERCEDES BENZ FASHION WEEK - REPRESENTING "SINGLE" FASHION LINE (BY GALINA SOBOLEV)
March 20, 2005

- Masha was the VIP and celebrity guest for the fashion designer Galina Sobolev's "Single" collection at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. Teaming up with fellow celebrity guest Wesley Snipes ("Blade").